San Miguel Beermen’s Jericho Cruz in the PBA Philippine Cup. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—San Miguel’s Jericho Cruz successfully returned to action for the Beermen on Friday after suffering a heel injury a few days ago in the PBA Philippine Cup.
While Cruz is still slowly finding his rhythm again with nine points and four rebounds, he chose to deflect the credit of the 98-91 win over Magnolia to the Beermen’s plethora of veterans.
“They [veterans] already know what to do. That’s what’s happening in our team now. When we have lapses, we react and adjust quickly because, of course, almost all of my teammates here have been in the league for how many years now,” said the shooting guard in Filipino at Araneta Coliseum.
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“Actually, almost all of us here in the team are veterans now. When there’s a small mistake, we react and adjust right away.”
The Beermen kept their record unscathed after eight games with the leadership of the squad’s grizzled veterans in June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross, just to name a few.
Even Fajardo did his duty as one of the leaders of the Beermen despite turning in numbers below his averages with nine points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
The seven-time PBA MVP’s unselfishness on the court reflects his eagerness to give San Miguel the win, according to Cruz.
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“In our team, we all know that June Mar is our bread and butter but that’s not even how he approaches us. All of us, as whole, have to take it [game] upon ourselves.”
Cruz also lauded coach Jorge Gallent, who’s been meticulously giving everyone minutes despite a huge chunk of the roster being long-time players.
“I’m thankful for coach Jorge. He coaches us really well, he’s a player’s coach. He’s not hard to approach, he jokes with us in practice. Our bond in the team is like family.”
Gallent also had some praises for the squad’s veterans, in particular, Ross, who sank clutch buckets from beyond the arc in the payoff period when the Hotshots were mounting a comeback rally.
“[With] Chris Ross, I’m just very happy that he’s practicing after training and you can see what happens [in the game]. Every time he practices, he becomes luckier. His practice or his key works proved good today,” said the top coach.
Ross finished with 15 points with all his baskets coming from the three-point area.